E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC INSIDERS
SUNDAY, 22 JULY 2018
 
SUBJECT/S: Jobs figures; underemployment and insecure work; by-elections; One Nation and Liberals are one in the same
 
BARRIE CASSIDY: Jim Chalmers, welcome.
 
JIM CHALMERS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Morning, Barrie.
 
CASSIDY: So those latest figures - jobs created three times more than forecast with, according to the Prime Minister, Queensland leading the way, something's working?
 
CHALMERS: When people see Malcolm Turnbull speak like that, and all the self-congratulation about the headline jobs figures, it's no surprise that so many people have concluded that he's spectacularly out of touch. You need to look beyond the headline figures when it comes to the jobs market in this country. The jobs market is defined by job insecurity, precarious work, underemployment, stagnant wages, all of these sorts of things. So it's a real mixed bag. We have in places like Longman, where I am today, an unemployment rate which is higher on one measure now than when the Liberals came to office. So every time people hear Malcolm Turnbull give himself a big pat on the back for the aggregate jobs number, they sort of conclude about him that he doesn't have the faintest idea what life is actually like in the jobs market in places like Caboolture and Morayfield and Burpengary.
 
CASSIDY: But you can't ignore the headline figure, and in Tasmania it is down to 5.9% in a state where they have traditionally struggled.
 
CHALMERS: Of course you look at the headline figure but it's only part of the story, Barrie. The point I'm making is that people's experience, particularly in the outer suburbs and provincial areas of Australia, is very different. They are having to face a lot of underemployment, which is a big challenge; they have stagnant wages; they have got insecure and precarious work. And so whenever Malcolm Turnbull talks about what a spectacular job he's doing, I think that really feeds a perception in the community that he is out of touch.
 
CASSIDY: There have been long campaigns in all seats. Given the experience of that campaign, is there an issue you think is number one in Longman?
 
CHALMERS: It has been a very long campaign, Barrie, you're right about that. I think what it will come down to is a real clash of priorities. What Malcolm Turnbull wants to do is to take money out of local hospitals and schools and TAFEs; take money off pensioners; and give a $17 billion tax cut to the big banks. We have very different priorities - Labor versus Liberal - in each of the by-election contests. Labor thinks that $17 billion would be better spent investing in our young people in our schools. Malcolm Turnbull thinks it would be better off boosting the profits of the big four banks. So there is a big choice for people to make. In lots of ways, it's their last chance to send a message to Malcolm Turnbull that they don't want money taken off local health and education services or off local pensioners, just to give to the big end of town. And that will be the opportunity that people have in six days' time, to send that message to Malcolm Turnbull; that his approach is entirely out-of-whack with what people in local communities want to see.
 
CASSIDY: Do you fear, though, a backlash against Susan Lamb because she held out for so long on the citizenship issue when she should have known that she wasn't eligible?
 
CHALMERS: I think it's an unusual situation, because usually in by-elections the incumbent MP is not a candidate. So in that sense it's unusual. But Susan Lamb did everything asked of her. She relied on advice; she did everything she could. She has a very difficult set of family circumstances, which are now well-known. She did what she was advised, she did what she could. When that was deemed to be insufficient, she copped it on the chin and renominated. So I think people understand and accept that. They also know that's not the defining feature of this by-election here in Longman. The defining feature really is the opportunity to send that message to Turnbull about his hospital cuts, his school cuts, and his $17 billion tax cut for the big banks.
 
CASSIDY: You might say it's about sending a message to Malcolm Turnbull, but surely what's really at stake here is the pressure is really on Bill Shorten? Because these are by-elections, they don't ordinarily go in favour of a Government. You really wouldn't want to drop one of these.
 
CHALMERS: Longman is a very special situation, I think, Barrie. I think it will be an absolute squeaker here in Longman, but also in Braddon. You have to remember that in Longman there's been eight elections since the seat was created, and the Liberals have won six out of those eight. This time we've got Pauline Hanson behaving as she does, as the wholly-owned subsidiary of Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal Party, and working very hard to send as many preferences as she can to a former member of Campbell Newman's team, Trevor Ruthenberg, who was an enthusiastic supporter of all of the cuts to nurses and all of the other atrocities that happened in this community. So it will be very difficult for us in Longman. We have said that all along. We have been behind. It will be a squeaker. We will get a sense of it this time next week. We might not even know this time next week - it could be that close.
 
CASSIDY: One Nation voters tend to be a bit independent, don't they? They're not going to be led in term of preferences, they will make up their own minds?
 
CHALMERS: They have been notoriously hard to predict, Barrie. But I think the difference here is there’s a lot of focus in by-elections - they can staff all the booths, they can hand out how-to-vote cards. I think Pauline Hanson has been an especially enthusiastic supporter of Malcolm Turnbull's tax breaks for the top end of town, his cuts to local hospitals and schools. She is really behaving like the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Liberal Party that she is in Canberra in the Senate, sticking her hand up time and time again for Malcolm Turnbull's agenda, which favours the top end of town, over communities like this one. So, we are worried about that. We're worried about her capacity to behave, effectively, in coalition with Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party. So we've got a big job to do, telling the people of Longman that this is their last chance to send a message to Turnbull about those local cuts, and that they don't want those tax cuts for the top end of town.
 
CASSIDY: Jim Chalmers, thanks for your time.
 
CHALMERS: Thank you, Barrie.
 
ENDS